This invention relates to nitroaromatic compounds and more particularly to halogen substituted nitroaromatic compounds.
Lloyd A. Kaplan and Francis Taylor, Jr., in NAVORD report 6017, entitled "High Temperature Stable Explosives I," disclose a method of preparing 1,3,5-trichloro-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene from 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene using 30% fuming sulfuric acid (by weight, 30% SO.sub.3, 70% H.sub.2 SO.sub.4) and potassium nitrate. Good yields were obtained using molar ratios of potassium nitrate to 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene of both 4:1 and 8:1, with 8:1 being the optimal ratio. The 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene was added to the mixture of potassium nitrate and fuming sulfuric acid at a temperature of 110.degree. C.
Denver Research Institute Report ASD-TDR-62-111, July 1962, discloses a method of producing 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene by heating 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene with a mixture of potassium nitrate and fuming sulfuric acid of unspecified strength. The molar ratio of potassium nitrate to 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene was 4:1. No mention about controlling the temperature during the addition of the 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene to the mixture of potassium nitrate and fuming sulfuric acid was made in the report. The yield of 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene was only 5.4 percent.